Towards Fairer Working Time and Better Conditions for Workers in Europe ⁄ Visionary Analytics

Fair working time is a cornerstone of job quality, encompassing not merely the number of hours worked but when and how predictably people work, whether they get adequate rest, and how working hours impact their work and personal lives. The debates on working time span a wide spectrum of themes, from proposals for working time reduction to improve work-life balance, to the difficulty of earning a living wage in atypical forms of employment. In the European Union, these issues are underpinned by legislation, namely, the Working Time Directive 2003/88/EC and more recent initiatives such as the Transparent and Predictable Working Conditions Directive (2019/1152) and the Work–Life Balance for Parents and Carers Directive (2019/1158).

The FATIMA project aimed to contribute to these ongoing debates on working time by establishing basic principles and a common understanding of what fair working time models could and should look like, how they can address the deterioration of working conditions and reduce the possible negative impact of the twin transition on workers. In particular, the report brings to light the challenges related to current trends, working time models, and their impact on working conditions, to provide trade unions with the necessary insights and guidance on this topic, and to build the capacity for future collective bargaining and social dialogue.

Focusing on four sectors – Care, Commerce, ICTS, and Property Services – we explore the underlying trends in working time evolution in the service sectors, examine the core risks for workers, and identify good practice examples of working time models and policy solutions that safeguard or improve working conditions at the sectoral level.

Our study

This study was carried out to provide research and analytical support to UNI Europa and all national service trade unions united under its umbrella organisation in implementing the project Fair Working Time Matters project (FATIMA), organised jointly by UNI Europa’s Care, Commerce, Information and Communications Technology and Related Services (hereinafter ICTS), and Property Services sectors.

The research employed a comprehensive, mixed-methods approach:

Desk research and a literature review
Interviews with trade union representatives
Sectoral workshops

The deliverables of the project include the final research report and policy recommendations report, which were presented at a final conference in Brussels.

Key findings

The research identified fair working time challenges across the four sectors as: involuntary part-time work, irregular hours, staff shortages, overtime, and work intensity.

Involuntary part-time work. Employers in care, commerce and cleaning increasingly rely on short, fragmented shifts to match variable demand and reduce labour costs. The result is widespread involuntary part-time work that traps predominantly female workers in low pay, unpredictable schedules and limited career prospects. The financial instability of involuntary part-time work often pushes workers towards overtime through seeking out additional shifts or looking for additional employment, in some cases, working two or more jobs just to earn a sufficient income.
Irregular hours. Across Commerce, Care, Property Services, and ICTS contact centres, working hours are largely shaped by employer needs, resulting in unstable schedules, on-call work, short-notice scheduling, and split shifts. Hyper-flexibility is especially imposed on workers in low wage sectors like the Property Services and Commerce sectors and can lead to ‘flexi-vulnerability’ among employees, because workers are not in a position to refuse last-minute shifts for the opportunity to supplement their income or to prevent being surpassed by their employer for jobs in the future. ICTS sector workers are impacted by hyper-flexibility through hyperconnectivity and a lack of regulations regarding the right to disconnect. In both cases, personal and professional time boundaries are blurred as workers struggle to fully disconnect outside of working hours.
Staff shortages. Staff shortages have emerged as a systemic and growing challenge in all four sectors studied in the FATIMA project, albeit with different underlying causes and manifestations. The cross-sectoral roots of staff shortages stem from unsustainable working conditions (e.g. unpredictable or fragmented hours, limited career advancement, low wages, and poor work-life balance), which are making these jobs unattractive. The exception is the ICTS sector, where staff shortages are largely driven by skill gaps and a culture of overwork. Rapid technological advancements have increased the need for new skills that many workers lack, and opportunities for upskilling are still limited. This has resulted in retention issues and challenges in attracting new, particularly young, workers.
Excessive, unpaid or involuntary overtime is a widespread problem across the service sectors in Europe. While the causes differ, the impacts are consistent: unstable income, chronic fatigue, poor health, and unsustainable working conditions. Unpaid overtime is widespread problem in all service sectors, even after the Court of Justice of the European Union’s (CJEU) ruling on the joint cases C-184/22 and C-185/22 from 29 July 2024.
Work intensity. Work intensity, the fast pace and pressure of work, is a cross-cutting issue with significant implications for workers across all four sectors studied, Care, Commerce, ICTS and Property Services, although it manifests differently depending on the nature of work and work organisation models. The pressure, pace, and psychological load is growing, linked to chronic stress and fatigue which harm workers’ health, degrade services, and increase turnover.

Key takeaways

At least three key horizontal takeaways emerge from the analysis:

Working time trends and patterns are diverging, and broad trends ‘hide’ significant sectoral variance. Difficulty lies in campaigning against excessive overtime, as well as involuntary part-time contracts and precarious incomes.
Issues of working time cannot be detached from other aspects of working conditions, such as remuneration, work intensity, and occupational safety and health. After all, staff shortages and employer cost-cutting are pushing workers to exhaustion.
Many workers face low wages, irregular shifts, and short-notice scheduling.
The importance of collective bargaining and employee voice in negotiating fair working time arrangements cannot be overstated. Our research found that where trade unions and social partners are strong, collective agreements have secured fairer conditions.